Crepe City 14, Europe’s largest Sneaker gathering.

CREPE City has come a long way from it’s humble beginnings back in 2009. From being the original and first UK sneaker event it now incorporates and collaborates with some of Britain’s biggest brands- from Crep Protect sneaker care to the guys at Ropes Laces, the function promises to cater for those both old and new to the addiction thus creating a community of great diversity.

Strictly, the origination of Crepe City started on social media with the group ‘KicksXchange’ in 2006, 3 years later Ronal Raichura and Paul Smyth planned the first event. Fast-forwarding to CC13 in March of this year, The Basement facebook group was introduced to the CC regulars due to the (10,000 members at the time) similar correlation in terms of interests, topics, and members themselves being a part of both online forums. This brought on a collaboration of apparel/accessories to be sold, as well as a lot more streetwear products that were in high demand; an example being Supreme x TNF jackets becoming available by Dutty Streetwear, and then a year later a vast selection of Box Logo T-Shirts being available at reasonable prices.

This Collab then continued onto CC14 of Halloween 2015, with the inclusion of another social media group, SneakerheadUK. This set up for a completely different atmosphere to the other rooms within the Old Truman Brewery. In addition to an absolute Yeezy-fest, there was a Snooker Table, Mini Hoops and a Playstation 4 which in essence is the ideal Man Cave environment- even a Sneaker Claw hand brought in by renowned retailers Schuh! Each forum produced their own Apparel, which was a very nice touch to the overall community feel between strangers and friends alike, I myself being lucky enough to fall into a group that I had met through these forums prior to the event, and throughout the day striking conversation with others whom I had previously only spoken to via social media.

Within the last year or so, custom sneakers have become quite a craze; this event immediately represented the absolute talent attending/selling within the event. The main reason for this particular mention is the presentation of two Toy Story themed sneakers. Firstly, there were Nike Mags from the film ‘Back To the Future’ (directed by Robert Zemeckis) skilfully painted to represent the boots of Buzz Lightyear. These were then paired with Adidas Yeezy 750, painted to resemble Woody’s outfit. Personally, these are single-handedly the most impressive customs I had seen in person, which is quite a feat due to my normal opinion of custom projects. The admiration was not only down to the impressive worksmanship, but solely due to the absolute rarity and cost of the sneakers themselves.

Prices were a big topic post-CC13 due to reselling becoming a far more prominent form of income. This time round, although prices were once again rather high it was definitely easier to find lower prices for lesser hyped items; in particular Asics collaborations. Once again referring from my own experience, the 25th Anniversary GLiii releases were regularly found below eBay prices (£200+) but the problem came down to finding your personal size. Fortunately, after around 4 hours of searching I did find what I had set out to in search of- the Asics GLiii x Mita ‘Far East’ 25th Anniversary release as seen below. For an absolute bargain price too!

To conclude, there is a reason that visitors travel from New Zealand, USA, Switzerland and Germany- that reason is the fact that this is THE biggest and best sneaker festival in Europe right now. Every minute of hard work paid off perfectly, all in all creating an incredible sense of community and togetherness of which I can safely say is an impressive feat- no matter who you are.